1. Field of Invention:
This invention relates generally to toys or amusement devices of the type in which play pieces dispersed in water contained in a transparent tank are propelled by a player toward a goal or target, and more particularly to a device in which the propulsive force for this purpose is a stream of air bubbles produced by a player-actuated air pump assembly operatively coupled to the tank.
2. Status of Prior Art:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,142,715 to Matsumoto and U.S. Pat. No. 4,032,141 to Tanimura disclose amusement devices in which a transparent tank filled with water has dispersed therein play pieces in the form of rings or other members having a specific gravity greater than water so that the pieces tend to sink to the bottom of the tank. Coupled to the tank bottom is a water pump which when actuated by a player shoots a stream of water into the tank that acts to propel the play pieces toward a goal or target. The object of this toy is to so operate the liquid pump as to cause the pieces to be caught by or fall into the target.
The practical drawback of a toy of this type in which the propulsive force is a water stream is that the player, while he can see the effect of the stream on the play pieces on which the stream impinges, is unable to see the stream itself, for the stream of water produced by the water pump is not visibly distinguishable from the pool of water into which the stream is injected.
Since the player cannot see the stream of water but only its effect on the play pieces, he cannot see the direction it takes, and this makes it difficult for the player to control the play pieces. Thus if the play pieces are small basketballs and the target a miniature basketball goal, it is then hard for the player to so manipulate the water pump as to avoid overshooting the goal.
Inasmuch as the present invention makes use of air bubbles as the propulsive force rather than a liquid stream as in the above-noted patents, the U.S. Pat. No. 3,733,738 to Kramer, is pertinent. In Kramer, an air pump blows bubbles into a column of water, the bubbles being intercepted by a capsule which is caused to rise and fall in the column under the control of the pump operator.
Also of background interest is the U.S. Pat. No. 4,568,302, to Henderson, in which an air bellows pump acts to blow air bubbles into a water tank to provide a bubble bath for a doll immersed in the tank. The use of air to impel balls toward a target is shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,711,097, to Begley, but there is no water in his arrangement.